Gallery 9

perpetual self portrait, finished

something Walsh said lit a fire under me and after an additional hour or so, this thing
is as finished as it will ever be. to be honest i'm glad to be done with it

16x20'' O/C

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Dona portrait

after reading "Girl with the Pearl Earring" i was forced to reconsider my attitude
toward painting those closest to me (mainly this means ''wife de jour''). the character
of Vermeer was quoted as having articulated, exactly as i had, why he never painted his
wife. prior to this the only painted portrait i've done of a wife was posthumous :
i have decided to repent of that mindset and allow Dona [current wife] to be part
of ''that world''

16x20'' O/C

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Van Gogh portrait

while not my favorite painting style (to emulate), i do love Vincent's later paintings

from a recent news story :

"The two paintings, and another van Gogh portrait of Reid, are included in an exhibition
of the Dutch painter's works that opened recently at Edinburgh's Dean Gallery, part of the
National Galleries of Scotland

Van Gogh's two portraits of Alexander Reid, "They were taken as twins and these portraits
were originally catalogued as self-portraits (of van Gogh)"

The first portrait is now at the art museum of the University of Oklahoma in the United
States, while the second is in Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum"

8x8'' oil on canvas panel, fifteen minute quick study

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crableg satori

i have been thinking about painting one of my big Conch shells, and wondering how i'd get
the colors right ... i guess this was an unconscious practice piece

11x14'' oil on canvas panel

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backyard

anyone who's suffered through my endless photos of the tarmac and backyard at my house
knows the landscape - this is a quick alla prima study of my favorite place on Earth (no,
not DizneLand)

8x8'' oil on canvas panel

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out of the black

painted light into a thin layer of oily ivory black

9x12'' O/C

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the Goose that laid the Golden Egg

a quick study of a simple idea that's been kicking around for a while now

8x8'' oil on canvas panel

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Girlie

girlie who looks like wife #1 - in Cardinal order, that is

based on a book cover i saw a few weeks ago - as i was walking past her display
she captured my attention

11x14'' oil on canvas

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a study in Tyranny

oil sketch, inspired by my interest in politics, persuasion, influence, brain washing,
propaganda, as well as sales and marketing

11x14'' oil on canvas panel

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Bird on roof

bird as God, looking out over city from rooftop

12x16'' oil on canvas panel

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Burns-Bush '08-'??

my wettest, wildest Republican Dream : Burns-Bush 2008-20??

Fox lawyers have explained it to me a few times, but the upshot is that while
Matt created the Burns character entirely based on my life story, he needn't pay
me any kind of royalties, as Burns is technically a ''fictional character''

8x8'' oil on canvas panel

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Wal-Mao

Billions of Happy customers can't be wrong

11x14'' oil on canvas over panel

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Hot Wheels

on the morning of 7.1.2006 i woke to find a discarded bike leaning against the
guy-wire of the pole on our property line - someone was having trouble with the chain,
and simply left it. eventually, after a few days, the timid college boys in a run-down
house at the end of the street finally found the courage to claim it, and is lay on their
front yard for a few weeks with no one to fix it. today i finally got around to painting it

stolen or borrowed is a matter for the courts, but the source of the bike (finally
turned over to the trashmen) remains a mystery. lacking a city registration sticker i
was unable to trace the owner

6.5x4.75'' oil on unmounted canvas

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DoughBoy Magic Circle

recetly, when i got up to get a drink of water in the middle of the night, the sound
of chanting was coming from the kitchen. deciding to investigate, i found my 30c
Pillsbury Doughboy was up, late at night, practicing some form of primitive ritual

nominal 10x11'' oil on fabric over masonite panel

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All Messed-Up and No Place to Go

today i came up with a demented game (no, not the one where three men are locked in a
steel ball cage and slowly lowered into scalding water until only one survivor remains)
where the artist places an unusual pictorial element on the canvas and then adds another,
and another, making adjustments as needed until the finished composition emerges
organically. i guess it's a kind-of ''solitary creativity chicken''

after placing the torso (neck to waist) in a corner of the canvas i toyed for hours with
what to do next - how to make sense of the fact that the body is blocked from view below the
waist (she almost became a tank commander) until finally the idea of a falling slip obscuring
the lower half of her form came to me. this required adding the lower arm, which may be a
violation of the rules (like any good game the rules will emerge and be refined as play
progresses)